Marital Imagery in the Bible

About-

Marital Imagery in the Bible. It can only be imagined that when the New Testament writers made their (albeit brief) comments on divorce and remarriage that they assumed they would be understood. So what has gone wrong?

In the years after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, when Graeco-Roman culture was at its height, the Jewish perspective of marriage and divorce, and thus the context of those brief New Testament comments was lost. The Christian church of that era was influenced by the neoplatonic ideas of the day, and an idealised concept of marriage developed from on Adam and Eve’s marriage recorded in Genesis 2:23—it was love at first sight, a marriage made in heaven. These concepts frame an understanding of marriage in much of Western culture even today.

However, that was never the understanding of ancient Israel. Instead they looked to Genesis 2:24: ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh’—so a naturally born man chooses a wife for himself, and their union was based on a ‘covenant’—in other words an agreement. The Old Testament makes it clear what the basis of that agreement was. Furthermore, it is clear, if that agreement was broken, there could be a divorce and a remarriage. All the Bible’s marital imagery (where the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures imagine that God is married to his people) is based on that understanding of human marriage.

But so strong is our concept of marriage, that when Genesis 2:24 is referred to in the New Testament, it is thought that the reference is to Adam and Eve’s marriage. It is a paradigmatic marriage that for many excludes (or greatly restricts) the possibility of divorce and remarriage.

This study looks to challenge that paradigm—and to suggest that the New Testament writers would not have employed an imagery which had at its center divorce and remarriage, only to deny the possibility of such in their own human marriage teaching.

Colin Hamer’s thesis represents the only recent work on metaphor theory in biblical scholarship. It challenges centuries of academic scholarship and ecclesiastical assumptions about divorce. Hamer’s detailed and well researched analysis challenges the consensus view that the marriage of Adam and Eve in Gen 2:24 represents an ontological unity, suggesting important implications for contemporary Christian teaching on marriage and divorce.

Endorsements & Reviews-

“This book makes a crucial contribution to understanding the Bible’s teaching on marriage, divorce and remarriage. Colin builds on studies on the Divine marriage (God’s relationship with his people, Israel; and Christ’s relationship to the Church). He uses a brilliantly logical and clear cross-mapping methodology to show how the Divine marriage relates to volitional human marriage in Gen 2:24. Colin then used this unique approach to grapple with the whole of the Bible’s teaching on marriage, divorce and remarriage, while still tackling key texts in depth. The result is that Colin has made a strong challenge to traditional views on divorce and remarriage, and goes on to provide a view that is solidly grounded in the Bible, rather than just using common wisdom.

I also highly recommend the chapters on the Divine marriage for understanding the Bible’s redemption story-line. It helps the reader by understand what God is doing with his people in both testaments, and the implications of how God’s people were treating Him. Although this is a technical study, it is a very rewarding read.”

—H. Davis on amazon.co.uk

“In this important and thoroughly researched thesis, Dr Hamer has resolved the conundrum of God’s concern for marriage and the texts of scripture that appear to give conflicting instructions about people who are divorced. It provides a vitally important insight into God’s healing solution for those who, like Himself, have experienced the rejection of their love.”

—Rev Dr Tom Holland, Senior Research Fellow, The Wales Evangelical School of Theology